The Cape Cod Railroad was a railroad in southeastern Massachusetts. It was incorporated in 1846 as the Cape Cod Branch Railroad to provide a rail link from Fall River Railroad line in Middleborough to Cape Cod. Among the proponents of the Cape Cod Branch Railroad were Richard Borden of Fall River, who saw the new line as an opportunity to bring more traffic and business through his hometown.[1]
On January 26, 1848, the first 14.7 mile segment of the railroad was opened between Middleborough and Wareham. By May 1848 an additional 12.9 miles was opened to Sandwich.
In 1853, the extension of the line to Hyannis was started, reaching reaching West Barnstable on December 22, 1853. On February 22, 1854, the Cape Cod Branch Railroad was renamed the Cape Cod Railroad Company.[2] In the spring of 1854, construction continued, with the railroad reaching Barnstable village May 8, Yarmouth Port May 19, and finally Hyannis on July 8, 1854. Connecting steamboat service to Nantucket commenced from Hyannis in late September and would continue until 1872, when the railroad branch to Woods Hole was opened.
In 1868, the Cape Cod Railroad acquired the Cape Cod Central Railroad, which had opened a line from Yarmouth to Orleans in 1865.
In 1871, the Cape Cod Railroad bought the Plymouth and Vineyard Sound Railroad, which had been incorporated in 1861 as the Vineyard Sound Railroad Company to build a line from Buzzards Bay to Woods Hole. However, the line to Woods Hole was not completed until after the merger with the Cape Cod Railroad in July 1872. By this time, the Cape Cod Railroad had merged with the Old Colony and Newport Railway to form a new company, renamed the Old Colony Railroad. The Cape Cod routes became known as the "Cape Cod Division" of the Old Colony Railroad, with an office in Hyannis.[3]
The Old Colony Railroad completed the line to Provincetown in July 1873.
The lines of the Cape Cod Railroad would become part of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad in 1893 its lease of the entire Old Colony Railroad network. The NY,NH&H ended daily passenger service to southeastern Massachusetts and the Cape in 1959. The railroad did, however, restore the popular seasonal rail service from New York, with connections from Boston, during the 1960 through 1964 summer seasons.
Between 1986 and 1996, Amtrak operated the Cape Codder during summer weekends from New York City to Hyannis.